Smile (Queen)

Smile were a London based rock band for about 18 months in the late 1960s. The band Queen was formed out of its ashes. Formed by Brian May (later guitarist for Queen) in 1967, it also included later Queen drummer Roger Taylor and Tim Staffell as singer and bassist.

Formation

May was previously the leader of a group known as 1984. That group, which included Staffell as lead singer, had lasted about four yearshttp://www.queenfans.com/articles/prequeen2.shtml.

Roger Taylor joined the group on drums in response to an advertisement. He had previously been both drummer and vocalist as frontman for a group known as Reaction. With a manager, roadie, logo designed by Staffell and paid gigs, the group was now becoming professional. They also used the promotions agency Rondo for publicity.

While Staffell and May both studied at Imperial College, their first gig there was on 26 October 1968, as a support act to Pink Floyd, playing mostly variations of covers with wild tempo changes and extreme dynamics. By the end of that year, Taylor had dropped his dentistry course, while May was still enrolled in astronomy.

The group's biggest public performance was on 27 February 1969 was at the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child. Held at the Royal Albert Hall, May, Taylor and Staffell performed as a trio on guitar, drums and bass respectively. Keyboardist Chris Smith had been fired the day before, according to Staffell. (According to Chris, he was only briefly in the band and left of his own accord due to wanting to try different styles. http://www.queenfans.com/articles/pics/chrissmith.jpg (currently offline)

Around this time Freddie Mercury was living with all three, and supported them behind the scenes. However, without a place for him in the band, he continued playing in other groups such as Ibex, later known as Wreckage.

Songs

The following songs have been confirmed by the members of the band as being part of their repertoire, either live or in their short-lived studio time.
* Earth (Staffell)
* Step On Me (Staffell/May) originally from May and Staffell's band 1984.
* Doin' Allright (Staffell/May)
* Blag (words: Taylor/music: May)
* Polar Bear (May)
* Silver Salmon (Staffell)
* See What A Fool I've Been (May, based on the song That's How I Feel by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee)
* If I Were A Carpenter (Hardin) a cover regularly featuring in their live set.
* April Lady (Lucas) a song presented to the band by Mercury Records during their second studio session.

Recording

In March 1969, the band played at a venue known as PJ's, using claims to have previously been played on radio station Radio 1 to secure an audience. It seems likely that the claims were fictitious, however. http://www.queenfans.com/articles/prequeen2.shtml Shortly after they were given a one-off recording deal by Mercury Records to record three tracks, "Earth" (Staffell), "Step on me" (May), and "Doin' All Right". These were recorded in June 1969 at Trident Studios in Soho. Ultimately this US promotional recording was never published commercially.

However, in September of the same year, Mercury commissioned them to record three more songs: "April Lady" (Stanley Lucas), "Blag", a Taylor instrumental, and "Polar Bear", a "gentle song about a polar bear" http://www.queenfans.com/articles/prequeen2.shtml written and led by May, at De Lane Lea. Again, the record was not released at the time.

Two legitimate releases of the six Smile tracks have since been issued:

Gettin' Smile (LP) from Japan, released September 23rd, 1982, on Mercury Records. The sleeve contains notoriously inaccurate lyrics and songwriting credits for the songs. This release was used for all subsequent bootlegs which contain the these songs.

Ghost Of A Smile (CD) from Holland, released in 1997, on Pseudonym Records. The CD booklet is comprehensive and features new liner notes by Tim Staffell. All the tracks were newly remastered. The album also features two versions on the Eddie Howell/Freddie Mercury collaboration "The Man From Manhattan" (no relation to Smile, except that Brian May plays guitar on it).

Queen

In 1970, Staffell left the group to join Humpy Bong, while Sour Milk Sea, the group Mercury was playing with, had just broken up. This left a perfect opportunity for Mercury to join Smile. At the same time, the name of the group changed to Queen. They were still a very small group, practising cover versions of other groups' songs in lecture theatres at a university. On 27 June, 1970 they played their first public gig together, with the lineup of Mercury, May, Taylor and Mike Grose on bass.

After the bass players Grose, Barry Mitchell and a player known only as 'Doug' proved unsuitable, Queen engaged the fourth band member, John Deacon in 1971. This definitively created the Queen lineup which lasted until Mercury's death in 1991.

For their debut album, Queen recorded "Doing All Right". According to the book "Queen: The Early Years", Tim Staffell has been well compensated through royalties (given his co-songwriting credit for the song with Brian May) from the sale of the album.

Queen also recorded the song for their first BBC recording session with John Peel. That session, along with their third session, have been released in the UK as Queen At The Beeb (Band Of Joy Records) in 1989, and in the US as Queen At The BBC (Hollywood Records) in 1996.

Later in 1995, Queen issued their Let Me Live singles, one of which features three of the first session BBC recordings, including "Doing Alright".

There is a bootleg album of their early tracks circa the Smile era titled Pre-Ordained.

Smile songs recorded by other artists

* Step On Me: Two versions were recorded by the pre-Smile band 1984 as part of a demo tape made at ITV Studios, London, England, March 31st, 1967.
* Earth: Tim joined the band Morgan and contributed the song to their first album Nova Solis in 1972.
* Doing All Right: recorded by Queen for their debut album Queen (1973). This version also appears on the US-only 7" single for their song "Liar" on Elektra Records (1974).
* Polar Bear: recorded as a demo, yet unreleased, by Queen during their debut album sessions.
* Silver Salmon: recorded as a demo, yet unreleased, by Queen during their debut album sessions.
* Doin' Alright: again recorded by Queen (with a slight name change to the song) for their first BBC session on February 5th, 1973. This version appears on Queen At The Beeb (1989) in the UK, and Queen At The BBC (1995) in the US, as well as on the CDQUEEN24 single "Let Me Live" as a B-side.
* See What A Fool I've Been: recorded in August of 1973, during Queen's second album sessions (Queen II). It did not appear on the album, but was released as the B-side to the album's single "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" (1974). This version would later appear on the Queen boxed set The Complete Works' bonus LP Complete Vision. Hollywood Records would re-issue Queen II in the US in 1991, with this song as a bonus track. The UK and Japanese CD3 singles (1987 and 1990 respectively) include the song again as the B-side for "The Seven Seas Of Rhye".
* See What A Fool I've Been: again recorded by Queen, now as part of their fourth BBC session with John Peel, aired in 1974, but otherwise unreleased.
* Blag: Though never recorded again as such, the featured solo evolved (and continues to evolve) through Brian May's career both with Queen and as a solo artist. Recorded versions of the solo include: "Son And Daughter" (third Queen BBC session, 1974, released on the aforementioned BBC album [see above]), "Brighton Rock" (from Queen's third album Sheer Heart Attack in 1974), "Brighton Rock" (from Queen's live album Live Killers in 1979), as "Guitar Solo" (from Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl recorded 1982), "Brighton Rock Solo" (recorded in 1986, on Live At Wembley '86, released 1992), as "Guitar Extravagance" (from The Brian May Band live album Live At The Brixton Academy in 1993), and recently again as "Guitar Solo" (on the Queen + Paul Rodgers live album Return Of The Champions in 2005).
* Polar Bear: recorded by Valensia for his album Queen Tribute in 2003.
* Earth: recorded by Tim Staffell for his solo album aMIGO. This version features Brian May on guitar and vocals, and Morgan Fisher (formerly of Morgan) on keyboards. Recorded in 2003.
* Doin' Alright: recorded by Tim Staffell for his solo album aMIGO. This version features Brian May on guitar and vocals.

Sources

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A3507879

Smile (Queen): Encyclopedia BETA

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